The Girl in the Pink Poncho
by quicksilversquared
Summary: Prince Ali wasn't Ladybug, that much he knew. So where was Ladybug, and why was she separated from her kwami? (What would have happened if Chat Noir had noticed Prince Ali holding Tikki? A Princess Fragrance divergence)


_A/N: Quick reminder that, as with the majority of my stories, this is a stand-alone one-shot and is therefore complete._

* * *

Chat Noir paused and blinked as Prince Ali landed on the ground in front of him. Sticking out of his pocket and looking more than a little out of place was a red _thing_ that looked oddly familiar. It had antennae and a black spot on its forehead and big eyes-

Did it just blink? It _totally_ just blinked. In a second, Chat Noir realized what the object reminded him of- Plagg. It looked like what he might imagine Ladybug's kwami to look like.

 _But if that's Ladybug's kwami, where is she?_

There was no time for questions. If it _was_ Ladybug's kwami, he had to do something. If it wasn't, he could deal with it later.

"I'll drive!" Prince Ali's guardian offered immediately as they ran to the curb where a grey car was parked. Chloe dived in immediately, followed by Prince Ali. "Get in, get in-"

"I'll hold the akuma off. Prince, can I take the, ah, plushie?" Chat Noir asked quickly, trying to think up an excuse. "I think I could use it to delay Princess Frag-"

"Take it!" The prince didn't even wait for the explanation before shoving the "plushie" into Chat Noir's hands. The car screeched off a moment later, leaving the superhero in a cloud of fumes. He looked down at the small red creature curiously. It blinked.

 _Definitely_ a kwami. It was cute.

"My prince! Don't run from me!" Princess Fragrance appeared in the window, and Chat Noir spun away, tucking the kwami into one of his pockets. He should probably at least _try_ to delay the akuma enough for the prince to get away, and then he could help Ladybug's kwami get to wherever she needed to be. He was about to charge the supervillain when a tiny sneeze came from his pocket.

 _Uh-oh_.

Chat looked down to see the red kwami curled up as much as she could while stuck in his pocket, shivering and letting out another tiny sneeze. She blinked blearily up at him, clearly sick as Plagg had been earlier in the day.

While Chat Noir was distracted, Princess Fragrance jetted off after Prince Ali and the speeding car. He considered trying to go and stop her for approximately a second before deciding that he'd do better to get Ladybug's kwami back on her feet and his partner at his side first. Supervillains never had a lasting effect, after all. Hopefully that wouldn't change this time around.

Extending his baton, Chat shot off down the street. He had a doctor to visit.

* * *

Marinette swore as she noticed Chat Noir consider Tikki before taking off in the opposite direction. She was glad that the kwami was no longer with Prince Ali, but now she would have to get Tikki back from Chat Noir without being noticed. It would be even harder now, since Chat Noir recognized Tikki's significance, while Prince Ali did not. Racing back out of the room and down the stairs, Marinette flew out of the hotel and nearly tripped over a scooter. _Perfect._

The problem with trying to follow Chat Noir was that he was _fast_ , and he had the distinct advantage of being able to jump over rooftops while she was limited to the streets. The only reason Marinette could keep up at all was that Chat Noir had slowed down, apparently trying to avoid jarring Tikki. He was pausing after every big jump to check on the red kwami.

Chat was ridiculously adorable at times.

Marinette screeched around a corner, trying to keep Chat Noir in sight while simultaneously not running over any small children or crashing into anything. Thankfully, the population of Paris seemed to have heard about Princess Fragrance and had, for the most part, decided to stay indoors.

By the time Marinette rounded the corner onto an unfamiliar street, Chat Noir had vanished. Swearing, Marinette sped up in search of her partner.

* * *

The strange helmet-wearing, pink cloak-wearing figure Chat Noir had briefly glimpsed in the hotel was following him, absolutely _screaming_ along on a kid's scooter. He hadn't even known that scooters could even go that fast, honestly. Every time he glanced back at the street, she was there.

"We're almost there," Chat Noir assured the red kwami, patting its little head as gently as he could while running along rooftops. "I know the way, because Plagg got sick earlier and I had to bring him in before class."

"I... I n-need to find my chosen," the little kwami insisted, shivering. "T-there's an attack, I c-can wait." She sneezed again, high-pitched and cute. _Much_ cuter than Plagg. He kind of wanted to trade.

"It'll be easier for you to find Ladybug once you're well again." Chat chanced another glance behind him. It looked like he had managed to throw off the strange scooter figure. "This won't take long. Plagg was cured in less than five minutes, and I think it only took that long because he was enjoying being the center of attention and so he pretended that he was still sick after the first round of cures."

As he approached the healer's place, Chat Noir dropped from the housetops to the street below, ducking into an alley to detransform. Plagg immediately shot upwards, uncharacteristically serious as he watched the red kwami shiver in Adrien's hands.

"Why didn't Ladybug take her kwami in right away?" Adrien asked Plagg. "You said that it was very important to take care of right away!"

Plagg had the decency to look somewhat abashed. "I... may have exaggerated a tiny bit."

"Uh-huh."

"I don't _like_ being sick," the cat god whined, even as Adrien tucked him out of sight in his jacket and entered the dimly lit building. "And you got your notes from Nino anyway, no harm done. Tikki must have told Ladybug that she could wait until later."

"S-she had class," Tikki mumbled, curling up more. "It could wait. H-her parents would get a-angry if she missed too many classes again and her friend would get suspicious. She was going to go as soon as school let out."

"All right, no talking now, you two." Adrien shushed the gods as he knocked on Mr. Fu's door, hoping that the elderly man wasn't busy with clients. Thankfully his knock was answered right away and the door opened. Mr. Fu blinked up at Adrien, looking oddly confused. His expression became even more befuddled when he spotted the red creature in Adrien's hands.

"Back again so soon?"

Adrien tried for an innocent smile. "Yes. My, uh, _cat_ got my sister's, ah, cat sick as well. And my cat has been doing so well since you healed him, so I figured I should take care of her, uh, cat before it got mine sick again."

"I see." Mr. Fu was inspecting Tikki. Adrien winced at his excuse, knowing full well that Ladybug's kwami looked nothing like a cat. He _definitely_ had an easier time of it when it came to making up excuses. "It won't take long for me to cure your sister's cat. Come in, come in."

Adrien followed the man inside, slipping some cash into the basket by the door. Mr. Fu hadn't asked for payment earlier and hadn't mentioned it this time around, but Adrien still felt that he had to compensate the man _somehow_. After all, he'd be in trouble if Plagg was sick or if Ladybug was out of commission. Speaking of Ladybug, she was probably _frantic_. He wondered if she had seen Prince Ali with Tikki, and if she knew that he had taken the kwami, and if she had tried to follow him. Suddenly Adrien remembered the scooter girl. She'd been at the hotel, at the scene of the attack even before he showed up. _Someone_ had provided the confetti diversion to let the reporters and the prince get away after Princess Fragrance showed up, and who else would think on their feet like that? It had to be her.

She was freaking _adorable_. Who on earth snuck around wearing a motorcycle helmet and a pink poncho? They would definitely have to have a fashion talk, though. Ponchos were _so_ three years ago.

"This shouldn't take long," Mr. Fu informed Adrien, pulling out the same setup of pillows and cymbals he had used for Plagg earlier. "Sit, sit."

Adrien sat.

* * *

Marinette pulled to a stop, breathing heavy as she scanned the street. She had well and truly lost Chat Noir now. Pulling out her phone she opened up a news site and scanned it, hoping to see something that mentioned Chat Noir. There was only one article there.

 _New Akuma loose in Paris- but where are Ladybug and Chat Noir?_

Marinette sighed in frustration. The article had a map showing where Princess Fragrance had last been seen, which was on the far side of Paris. Chat Noir had clearly been heading in the opposite direction, away from Princess Fragrance instead of towards her. So what had he been heading for?

"Think, think, _think,_ " Marinette mumbled to herself. Chat Noir wasn't going after the akuma, that much was obvious. He had Tikki, and he had recognized her as a kwami. He had likely noticed that she was sick...

"Oh!" Marinette exclaimed, pulling out the piece of paper with the address Tikki had dictated to her between classes. She checked the address against the street name. Sure enough, Chat Noir seemed to have made a beeline towards the kwami doctor.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Marinette wheeled down the street at a much more sedate pace, checking building numbers as she went. She came to a stop in front of the building matching the address Tikki had given her. Crossing the street, Marinette settled in a bush and waited.

* * *

Healed kwami in hand, Adrien thanked Mr. Fu and headed out the door. Ladybug's kwami sat silent and wary in his hand, obviously disoriented after being sick and waking up with no Ladybug. Adrien clattered down the stairs as fast as he could, knowing full well that Princess Fragrance currently had free reign in Paris. He would have to track down Ladybug first, to make sure Tikki got back to her safe and sound, and he wasn't sure how long that would take.

"I can feel her close by," Tikki suddenly announced, straightening in Adrien's hands. " _Really_ close."

Adrien swallowed nervously. "In the building close?"

"Not quite. I would transform now, if I were you," Tikki recommended. "Because the last person my Ladybug saw me with was Chat Noir. She might put the pieces together."

Adrien nodded as Plagg groaned. He sent a cursory glance around for any cameras. Finding none, Adrien transformed in a flash of green light.

Tikki hovered by Chat Noir's shoulder as he pushed open the door at the bottom of the stairs and stepped out into the street. They both paused, searching the street for signs of Ladybug's civilian form. Chat Noir was the first to spot her- well, her scooter.

"Is she over there?" Chat Noir asked, pointing. The scooter lay abandoned near a bush and if he squinted, he could see the pink from the poncho through the leaves. The bush shivered slightly, even though there was no wind. Ladybug remained hidden from view.

Tikki brightened immediately. "Yes, she is! She must have figured out where you were going!"

"She's brilliant. If I had been the one to lose my kwami, I would have gone around in circles and she would have had to track me down." Chat Noir stepped forward, eyes locked on the pink hiding in the bush. It hadn't made any move forward. A sudden thought stuck him, and he stopped Tikki before she could take off. "Um, you're not going to tell her who I am, are you?"

Tikki giggled. "Oh, don't worry! I've never told her before and I've known you were Chat Noir for forever because I could detect Plagg on you. It would have been impossible to not notice him so close every day!" She froze as soon as the last work let her mouth. "I shouldn't have said that. Forget I said that, I shouldn't have said that..."

Chat Noir froze and blinked at her, his heart rate starting to pick up. _Wait, what?_ "So close every day?"

"I didn't say anything."

"No, wait," Chat Noir insisted, staring at her. _Was it possible that he knew his lady in real life?_ His excitement started building. If Ladybug's kwami knew him, then Plagg probably knew who Ladybug was... and the little devil-cat hadn't said a word about it, naturally. "Ladybug is close to me every day? What do you mean? Do I know her? Are we friends? Do we hang out at all?"

"I'm not saying another word! Good _bye_ , Chat Noir!" Before Chat Noir could say another word, the tiny kwami was shooting across the street and into the bush. There was a squeal of joy (Ladybug, Chat Noir guessed, and _oh my god she sounded adorable_ ) and a flash of light, and then Ladybug was bounding across the street to join him, shucking her bright pink poncho and the helmet as she went.

Chat Noir couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face at the sight of his partner. "Bugaboo! How nice it is to see you! Are you really getting rid of that poncho? It looked so cute on you!"

Ladybug snorted and bopped his nose fondly. "Down, kitty. It would just get in my way and we have an akuma to stop."

" _Awwww."_

"No, _chaton_. Besides," Ladybug added as she stepped away and prepared to wind up for a throw, "Ponchos are _so_ three years ago."


End file.
